Thiruvananthapuram: A week in politics is a long time and a few months is an eternity! A few months ago the CPM rank and file as well as the leadership in Kerala were dreaming of securing an easy win in the assembly polls to come up in the ensuing summer. This confidence stemmed after getting a good press in the wake of Kerala's early success in taming the coronavirus outbreak. From an extremely favourable political situation, the CPM in Kerala today finds itself staring at a disaster of sorts at the hustings as its Left Democratic Government has been caught in a welter of unseemly controversies and a surge in Covid cases unlike in most other states.
The party is clearly anxious and uncertain about overcoming the adverse political conditions. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) which intensified the probe against the chief minister's former principal secretary has now reached the doorsteps of Pinarayi Vijayan’s additional private secretary. To make matters worse for the party, the ED team which is questioning CPM state secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishan's son Bineesh in Bengaluru, has conducted a 26-hour raid at his house in Thiruvananthapuram besides multiple places across the state.
In the backdrop of central investigating agencies moving collectively against the state government, the CPM has convened its state secretariat and state committee meetings on Friday and Saturday respectively to discuss the unprecedented crisis that has gripped the party in Kerala and to devise a counter strategy.
Kodiyeri will brief the meetings about the present situation and the stand to be taken by the party. The party leadership has already rejected the reports that Kodiyeri will relinquish secretary's post for the time being. The Central leadership believes that what is going on at present is a political onslaught hence there is no problem in Kodiyeri continuing in office. Besides discussing the crisis faced by the party, the state committee will also consider the stand to be taken by Kodiyeri.
Even while standing firmly with Kodiyeri Balakrishnan, the central leadership has distanced itself from the activities of his son Bineesh Kodiyeri. "He should own up responsibility for his deeds. The party will not extend any support to him' - this is the CPM line. Kodiyeri too has not taken a stand in favour of his son even though he is of the opinion that ED’s actions are politically motivated.
The CPM's Available Secretariat which met at the AKG Centre on Thursday decided that the party need not intervene in the investigations being carried out against Bineesh. The chief minister, four politburo members and central committee members were present at the AKG Centre for the meeting.
The party is of the opinion that if human rights violation had taken place during the raid at Bineesh's house at the Kerala capital then the family should take legal action on the matter. Meanwhile, Kodiyeri is also interacting with senior lawyers who are close to the party. However, the leadership has clarified that such discussions are happening at his personal level and not on behalf of the party.
The CPM leadership is wary about explaining the present case against Bineesh before the party members as the state secretary’s son has faced a host of serious allegations even in the past. The leadership believes that there are limitations in explaining cases of serious nature like drug smuggling and benami property before the public.
With the local bodies poll round the corner, ahead of the assembly polls in 2021, the CPM is gearing up to explain before partymen that the central government’s vendetta politics is behind most cases.
At this stage the party is clearly scouting for effective political weapons to build a counter-attack against rivals.
